University of Texas Sets Parameters for Concealed Handguns on Austin Campus

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Students protested last October at the University of Texas at Austin to oppose a state law allowing the concealed carry of handguns on campuses.CreditRalph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated Press

Despite his own reservations, and those of much of his staff and student body, the president of the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday announced rules that will allow concealed handguns to be carried on campus, including in classrooms.

A new Texas law requires public colleges and universities to adopt policies that will generally allow concealed carry, which has been prohibited on the flagship Austin campus. The law allows private schools to keep their prohibitions, and the most prominent among them, including Rice, Baylor and Southern Methodist, have said they will do so, but public universities were not given a choice.

“I do not believe handguns belong on a university campus, so this decision has been the greatest challenge of my presidency to date,” the university president, Gregory L. Fenves, said in an open letter announcing the policy. “I empathize with the many faculty members, staffers, students and parents of students who signed petitions, sent emails and letters, and organized to ban guns from campus and especially classrooms. As a professor, I understand the deep concerns raised by so many.”

Faculty and student groups had called on the university to develop a policy that would comply with the law, generally allowing concealed carry, while prohibiting weapons in classrooms.

But Dr. Fenves, like the panel he appointed to draft the policy, concluded that it could not be done. “I cannot adopt a policy that has the general effect of excluding licensed concealed handguns from campus,” he wrote, and “a classroom exclusion would have this effect.”

A national group called Students for Concealed Carry, which advocates allowing guns on campus, said the university had gone too far, violating the intent of the law. The group said it would go to court to challenge parts of the new policy, particularly a passage allowing university employees to ban guns from their offices, and another one requiring that a semiautomatic handgun be carried without a round in the firing chamber.

“President Gregory Fenves chose to punt the issue to the courts rather than stand up to a cabal of fear-mongering professors,” the group said in a statement.

About 5 percent of Texans older than 21 are licensed to carry concealed handguns, but Gary Susswein, a university spokesman, said the university had no way of knowing what the numbers were for staff or students. “Under state law, we’re not allowed to ask people if they have concealed carry licenses,” he said.

Texas, like most states, allows “open carry” — that is, not concealed — of firearms. But the state law allowing open carry, which went into effect this year, prohibits the practice on college and university campuses.

The new concealed-carry policy for the Austin campus goes into effect Aug. 1.

The policy carves out places where guns will remain prohibited, reflecting the administration’s desire to make the rules as restrictive as possible without violating the law. In some cases, the policy reiterates what is already in state law, barring concealed carry in bars, polling places and sporting events.

In other places, it outlines restrictions specific to the campus, that gun-carriers will have to learn and work around.

■No guns in dormitories, with a few exceptions. This is less significant than it appears: More than 80 percent of the university’s students live off-campus, and a person must be 21 or older to get a concealed carry license in Texas, so most undergraduates would be excluded, anyway.

■Concealed firearms will be allowed in common areas of dorms like dining halls and lounges.

■Concealed carry will be banned in staff or student disciplinary hearings; in laboratories with dangerous chemicals, biological agents or anything explosive; in any laboratory or other facility that houses animals; and in any facilities that provide patient care, including mental health counseling.

■People who work in campus programs for children younger than college age will be prohibited from carrying handguns while taking part in those programs.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: University of Texas Sets Rules for Concealed Handguns on Austin Campus. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe